Review: 'Demon Within' could do without psychobabble

By By Martin Tsai

Apr 17, 2014 | 1:50 PM

Daniel Wu and Nick Cheung in "That Demon Within." (China Lion)

Inspired by the sensational real-life tabloid fodder that jolted Hong Kong in 2006, "That Demon Within" centers on an unstable cop's psychological deterioration throughout the investigation of a grisly diamond heist.

Not unlike most of its Hollywood counterparts, though, this Hong Kong import can't resist the urge to dumb down a fascinating premise for the sake of mass consumption.

The heist sideshow often hijacks the main attraction that is Dave's impending meltdown, dissipating the plot. The film sets out to establish the parallel and duality à la "Infernal Affairs" (and its remake, "The Departed") between Dave and armed robber Hon Kong (Nick Cheung) — whose life Dave unwittingly saved via blood transfusion — but hardly any concrete link materializes.

Lam degrades the complex issue of mental illness into a mix of pedestrian psychobabble, overwrought expositions and hyperstylized hallucinations. Disinterested in the actual symptoms and effects of schizophrenia, the film ascribes any shopworn psychosis imaginable to Dave. Had Lam treated mental illness as a serious subject, "That Demon Within" could have been the next "Memento."